Various types of protective headgear have been designed for use in sporting activities. Some of these prior apparatus protect against physical impact to the head as well as against penetration of foreign objects into the face area of the helmet. Other of the apparatus provide a shock absorbing means for minimizing the impact of forceful blows to the faceguard. Although many of the headgear designs which utilize a protective shield to cover the entirety of the player's face would prevent an opposing player from grasping the facemask by virtue of preventing the penetration of the opposing player's hand into the upper part of the helmet, such designs have one or more serious disadvantages which severely limit their effectiveness. In particular, such full-face deflection shields cannot be adequately ventilated, can visually impair the player because of "fogging" of the shield, and can also impair verbal communication because of the physical blockage presented by the shield.
Over the past thirty years, several attempts were made to develop a device or system to reduce or eliminate facemask-related injuries. These devices primarily utilized some type of mechanism or retention device which allowed the faceguard to totally disengage from the helmet when a sufficient load or tension was applied. This type of approach was not acceptable to the game because of risk of further injuries when the faceguard separated from the helmet. The consensus of experts in the field is that the helmet and faceguard must remain intact at all times as a mutually supporting system. Any device which has the purpose of eliminating or reducing a firm grasp on the faceguard must not alter the structural integrity of the helmet/faceguard system.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a facemask protection device to prevent injury to the neck and face of a player by reducing the ability of an opposing player to grasp the facemask or to penetrate the facemask of a player's helmet. It is also an objective of the present invention to reduce injuries related to faceguard grasping while maintaining the structural integrity of the helmet/faceguard system. It is still further an objective of the present invention to reduce injuries to the lower facial area by eliminating thrusts of fingers through openings of the current faceguard designs.